"The evolution of human intelligence ceased when the Golden Age of Greece concluded."

Friends, do you ever get the feeling that you are slowly sinking into quicksand? I do and it’s a scary feeling.

Of course, I’ve never been in real quicksand so I don’t really know what that’s like but my sinking feeling is real, frightening. I fear I am sinking into the quicksand of the world.

Let me explain giving a simple example. I watched the stormy Obama meeting with Netanyahu. Then I watched the Obama address to AIPAC in which he contradicted himself completely and was servile. Next I saw him jet off to Paris or London, I think it was. Then, next week, I know that Netanyahu addresses Congress and will be given a rapturous reception as if he was a hero instead of a mass murderer (in Gaza) and brutal occupier.

In trying to put these disparate images together, I felt the ground underneath me shift, soften because nothing much makes sense anymore, and I sink a little further no matter how I struggle, how much I think!

Millions of similar images are floating around me. Obama encouraging people to rise up and seek democracy in nations where the U.S. has been supporting cruel despots for decades. Obama talking about peace when he leads the supreme warmongering nation in the world. Obama vetoing U.N. resolutions critical of Israel while claiming to champion human rights.

And it’s not just Obama.

There is Pakistan where Imran Kahn, the world famous cricketer, is leading a protest group attacking the use of American drones because of the number of civilian deaths. The Pakistan Government criticizes the use of drones even though it has also allowed the U.S. to use them. As I write this, there is an attack on a Pakistan naval base in Karachi by the Taliban which is ongoing and more than 10 people have been killed thus far.

An attack on a guarded naval base by terrorists? A government that allows drones then criticizes them? A cricketer leading a protest movement? It doesn’t make any sense. The ground softens further. Is nothing stable, solid, reliable?

Any human who keeps up to date with world affairs is walking on quicksand. The sheer number of events and the lack of any logic or pattern to most them is more than a single human mind can encompass. It’s like being caught in an ever-moving kaleidoscope, one that doesn’t stop even when we sleep. More images, billions of them, dancing and whirling like butterflies, moths, stinging insects.

The world we live in is too complex. We have made it that way. It, in return, is crushing us, drowning us. We should have never left the villages where we grew our crops and spun our own cloth and lived simply but contentedly in extended families. Some villagers never moved from their immediate surrounds and never wanted to. Their brain coped with their reality. Ours can’t!

We have created an ocean of quicksand and we are drowning in it. We can’t make sense of it yet we can’t escape it. Waves of information crash down upon us, bury us: two men having children, people having sex changes, penile enlargements, breast reductions, gay marriage, space travel, massive earthquakes, tsunamis, infidelities, school massacres, nuclear meltdowns, massive oil leaks, tornadoes, droughts and floods, incest, endless wars, financial collapses, increasing cancer, is coffee good for us or bad? imperialism, capitalism, refugees, socialism, child trafficking, nuclear weapons, atheism, Judaism, drugs, where to put your money, how to cope with old age, who to vote for, aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Save us! Please. Pull us from the quicksand, banish the fear and confusion that is almost universal. We need a rock to stand on, something comprehensible, something we can understand, that we can rely upon!

The truth is that only we can save ourselves. Only we can create a world which once again fits the confines of our limited intelligence.

The truth is: We have grown too big for our boots, or, more correctly, our brains!

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

16 Comments

coco

May 23, 2011 at 11:58 pm

well david, i am now having to resort to using the public library for my internet connection. therefore, i do not see what is going on quite so often. (no t.v. and donºt waste money on rubbish tabloids/msm crap) and believe me, itºs quite refreshing not knowing exactly what is going on and no surprise when i eventually see what is going on. i met a man today who said humans were ºfoolishº……………..thatºs putting it mildly. we certainly are living in ºthe age of stupidº……………………

Its the quicksand of disappointment.
Bush got the push and Obama took over. “Yay” I thought. Wrong. Glub glub in the quicksand we go. Howard went away and Rudd took the reins. “Yay” I thought. Wrong again. Glub glub. Gillard knifed por old Ruddy, and once a gain I hoped it would be A Good Thing, despite the methods used. Third time’s a charm, and all that. Oh dear. Sinking fast. Glub glub.
So I picked up the tv remote for a little light relief. We used to have 3 channels. Now we have the mind-bending choice of 14 free-to-air. All crap. Glub glub.
My father just bought a new kettle. It goes ‘ding’ when its picked up, put down, or boils water. In the name of sanity, why?? Glub glub.

Steve, your comments are always perceptive. The ‘dinging’ kettle shows clearly the madness of the world we live in. We must fill it with noise, useless noise to help push away the reality of what the world has become.

David,
Personally, I do not think the world is that mush more complex now than it ever has been. What has changed, and not always for the better, is that now we CAN see what is happening the world over instantly.
Life did seem to move at a slower pace and it may even have seemed to be simpler back before the internet, telephone, or even the telegraph. Back when news from Europe took nearly a month or more to make it to the North American territory. Hell, the “Battle of New Orleans” took place AFTER the peace treaty to end that war had been signed, the news moved much slower then. No CNN or Faux Noise TV or internet so old Andy Jackson got to be a “hero” in a battle that was not needed to be fought.
See, even back in that “simpler” world, there were still needless deaths in damn fool wars.
It isn’t quick sand David. It is most likely information over load. I have gone through that more than once in recent years. Too many things are available for me to read about or catch video of. So much information is available to us and at times we feel that we “must” read it all, every day.
My advice, so down. Limit what you read for a while. Focus on certain topics for a few days. Hell, even take a total break from he entire net. Trust me, the world and most of us will still be here when you come back, refreshed from a “vacation”.
What you feel, the sinking in quick sand, is just a normal reaction to an information overload and it hits people who care the hardest. You are a caring person, else wise, why do you have this blog? You have it because you care about people. That is why you write here and leave it open for comments. I appreciate your blog and your caring. Just do one thing, take care of yourself and take a short break from the news. Some times, even a one or two day break can be just what you need to “re energize” yourself.

I respectfully disagree re the complexity of our world.
Take coffe for example. When I was a teenager (yes, that long ago) we had “A Cup of Coffee”. And now?
Well, howbout a Venti, triple-shot non-fat, sugar-free, cinnamon dolche latte, with whip? Or a grande in a venti cup, half whole milk and half non-fat milk, 99.5 degree half caf and half de-caf two pump mocha one pump vanilla latte with whip add 1 packet of sugar and 1/2 packet of equal, in a double cup with a sleeve.
Or perhaps a Double Ristretto Venti Half-Soy Nonfat Decaf Organic Chocolate Brownie Iced Vanilla Double-Shot Gingerbread Frappuccino Extra Hot With Foam Whipped Cream Upside Down Double Blended, One Sweet’N Low and One Nutrasweet, and Ice.
Madness. Glub glub.

Charlie, thanks for your caring and your advice. But as they say, “…And The Beat Goes On!”

Besides, I really do think that our technological advancement has outpaced our intellectual and sociological development. That is why there are so many confused and fearful people in the world because they see the dangers but they don’t know what to do about them.

I agree that only we can save ourselves. We keep looking for someone out there to save us. In the last presidential election people the world over thought Obama was the one. Boy were we in for a shocker. He promised to end the war in Iraq. Yup and the war goes on.
We need to start now to build a better world. We can do this if we put our minds to it.

i got lost today and nearly died in quicksand.it is not a force to be compared to.its deadly.trust me i know i had to cross it to get to safety.it was only the size of a small stream but more deadly than a rattlesnake.